Bernard Picart, La Foudre de Jupiter contre Semel, Etching, 1742 for sale at Pamono

Description

Black and white etching on wire rod paper titled La Foudre de Jupiter contre Semel, representing Jupiter’s thunder against Semele, realized by the Old Master Bernard Picart. Beautiful plate with fresh impression, from the volume Le Temple des Muses, published in Amsterdam in 1742 by Zacharias Chatelain. Caption and author inscription below the image: “B. Picart del. 1731” underneath the engraved frame, on the lower left margin. In excellent conditions, except for a usual light yellowing of the margins and some minor stains on the lower margin; some light vertical folds are present on the left margin near the binding. Overall, the engraved image is nearly in perfect conditions. Le Temple des Muses is an illustrated book of Ovid’s most popular fables and other Greek myths, published in 1733 in Dutch (Tempel der Zanggodinnen), in 1738 in English, and in 1742 in French by Zacharias Chatelain. The engravings had captions in four languages: French, English, German, and Dutch. The wonderful sixty plates engraved by Bernard Picart were a sort of fashionable mythological compendium, very useful in the eighteenth century, when the fascination with Greek and Roman antiquity coincided with the systematic excavation of the ruins at Pompeii and Herculaneum in southern Italy; after 1750, a neoclassical style dominated all artistic fields. Bernard Picart (Paris, 1673 Amsterdam, 1733) French engraver best known for his book-illustrations, including the Bible and Ovid. His most famous work is Crmonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde, published from 1723 to 1743 and was defined: “an immense effort to record the religious rituals and beliefs of the world in all their diversity as objectively and authentically as possible” by Jonathan I. Israel. This artwork is shipped from Italy. Under existing legislation, any artwork in Italy created over 70 years ago by an artist who has died requires a licence for export regardless of the works market price. The shipping may require additional handling days to require the licence according to the final destination of the artwork.